2018–19 West Coast Conference men's basketball season explained

2018–19 West Coast Conference men's basketball season
Color:	9B1743
Color Text:	FFFFFF
League:	NCAA Division I
Sport:	Men's basketball
Pixels:	120px
No Of Teams:	10
Season:	Regular season
Season Champs:	Gonzaga
Mvp:	Rui Hachimura, Gonzaga
Mvp Link:	West Coast Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year
Finals:	Tournament
Finals Link:	2019 West Coast Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
Finals Champ:	Saint Mary's
Finals Runner-Up:	Gonzaga
Finals Mvp:	Jordan Hunter - Saint Mary's
Finals Mvp Link:	West Coast Conference Men's Basketball Tournament#List of finals
Seasonslistnames:	Basketball
Prevseason Link:	2017–18 West Coast Conference men's basketball season
Prevseason Year:	2017–18
Nextseason Link:	2019–20 West Coast Conference men's basketball season
Nextseason Year:	2019–20

The 2018–19 West Coast Conference men's basketball season began with practices in September 2018 and will end with the 2019 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament March 2019. This is the 68th season for WCC men's basketball, and the 30th under its current name of "West Coast Conference". The conference was founded in 1952 as the California Basketball Association, became the West Coast Athletic Conference in 1956, and dropped the word "Athletic" in 1989.

Head coaches

Coaching changes

On February 13, 2018, Pepperdine announced that head coach Marty Wilson would not return following the end of the season.^[1] He finished at Pepperdine with a seven-year record of 88–129 (91–139 when including his 3–10 record as interim head coach in 1995–96). On March 12, the school hired Lorenzo Romar as head coach.^[2] Romar returned to Pepperdine where he started his coaching career in 1996.^[3]

On March 8, 2018, San Diego head coach Lamont Smith, who had been placed on administrative leave following an arrest for domestic violence 10 days earlier, resigned as head coach.^[4] Assistant coach Sam Scholl took over as interim head coach for the Toreros during the WCC Tournament and the CIT.^[5] On April 2, the school announced Scholl would remain the head coach.^[6]

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	WCC record	WCC Tournament record	NCAA Tournaments	Sweet Sixteens
style=	BYU	Dave Rose	Dixie State	14				8	1
style=	Gonzaga	Mark Few	Gonzaga (asst.)	20				19	8
style=	Loyola Marymount	Mike Dunlap	Charlotte Bobcats	5				0	0
style=	Pacific	Damon Stoudamire	Memphis Grizzlies (asst.)	3				0	0
style=	Pepperdine	Lorenzo Romar	Arizona (asst.)	1				7	3
style=	Portland	Terry Porter	Minnesota Timberwolves (asst.)	3				0	0
style=	Saint Mary's	Randy Bennett	Saint Louis (asst.)	18				6	1
style=	San Diego	Sam Scholl	San Diego (asst.)	1				0	0
style=	San Francisco	Kyle Smith	Columbia	3				0	0
style=	Santa Clara	Herb Sendek	Arizona State	3				8	1

Notes:

• Year at school includes 2018–19 season.
• Overall and WCC records are from time at current school and are through the beginning of the 2018–19 season.

Preseason

Preseason poll

Source^[7]

Rank	Team
1.	Gonzaga (9)
2.	Saint Mary's
3.	BYU (1)
4.	San Francisco
5.	San Diego
6.	Pacific
7.	Loyola Marymount
8.	Pepperdine
9.	Santa Clara
10.	Portland
(first place votes)

All-WCC Preseason Men's Basketball team

Honor	Recipient
Preseason All-WCC Team
	James Batemon, Loyola Marymount
	Yoeli Childs, BYU
	KJ Feagin, Santa Clara
	Frankie Ferrari, San Francisco
	Jordan Ford, Saint Mary's
	Rui Hachimura, Gonzaga
	Zach Norvell Jr., Gonzaga
	Josh Perkins, Gonzaga
	Isaiah Piñeiro, San Diego
	Killian Tillie, Gonzaga

Source

Rankings

See main article: 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings.

Legend

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
align=center style="width:20px; border:1px solid #aaaaaa; background:white;"		RV	Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll
(Italics)		Number of first place votes

	Pre/ Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18	Wk 19	Post
BYU	AP
C
Gonzaga	AP	3 (1)	3	3	1 (32)	1 (43)	4 (1)	8	7	7	5	5	4	4	4	3	2 (6)	1 (44)	1 (42)	1 (41)	4 (1)
C	4 (1)	4 (1)	3	1 (17)	1 (21)	6 (1)	9	8	8	6	5	4	4	4	3	2 (4)	1 (26)	1 (27)	1 (28)	3 (3)
Loyola Marymount	AP			RV
C
Pacific	AP
C
Pepperdine	AP
C
Portland	AP
C
Saint Mary's	AP
C			RV
San Diego	AP
C
San Francisco	AP						RV	RV	RV				RV
C								RV
Santa Clara	AP
C

WCC regular season

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

	style= width=75	BYU	style= width=75	Gonzaga	style= width=75	LMU	style= width=75	Pacific	style= width=75	Pepperdine	style= width=75	Portland	style= width=75	Saint Mary's	style= width=75	San Diego	style= width=75	San Francisco	style= width=75	Santa Clara
GON	LMU	PAC	PEPP	PORT	SMC	USD	USF	SCU -->	vs. Brigham Young	–	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–2	1–1	0–2	2–0	0–1
vs. Gonzaga	0–2	–	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2
vs. Loyola Marymount	2–0	2–0	–	0–2	1–1	0–2	1–0	2–0	0–1	0–2
vs. Pacific	2–0	2–0	2–0	–	0–2	0–2	2–0	1–0	1–0	2–0
vs. Pepperdine	1–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	–	0–2	1–1	0–2	2–0	2–0
vs. Portland	2–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	–	1–0	2–0	2–0	2–0
vs. Saint Mary's	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–2	1–1	0–1	–	0–2	1–1	0–2
vs. San Diego	2–0	2–0	0–2	0–1	2–0	0–2	2–0	–	0–2	1–0
vs. San Francisco	0–2	2–0	1–0	0–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	2–0	–	1–1
vs. Santa Clara	1–0	2–0	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	2–0	0–1	1–1	–	GON	LMU	PAC	PEPP	PORT	SMC	USD	USF	SCU -->
Total	11–5	16–0	8–8	4–12	6–10	0–16	11–5	7–9	9–7	8–8

All-WCC awards and teams

Honor	Recipient
All-WCC First Team
	James Batemon, Loyola Marymount
	Yoeli Childs, BYU
	Brandon Clarke, Gonzaga
	Frankie Ferrari, San Francisco
	Jordan Ford, Saint Mary's
	Rui Hachimura, Gonzaga
	Zach Norvell Jr., Gonzaga
	Josh Perkins, Gonzaga
	Isaiah Piñeiro, San Diego
	Colbey Ross, Pepperdine

Honor	Recipient
All-WCC Second Team
	Tahj Eaddy, Santa Clara
	Malik Fitts, Saint Mary's
	T.J. Haws, BYU
	Charles Minlend, San Francisco
	Olin Carter III, San Diego

Honor	Recipient
All-WCC Freshman Team
	Gavin Baxter, BYU
	Dameane Douglas, Loyola Marymount
	Kessler Edwards, Pepperdine
	Filip Petrušev, Gonzaga
	Trey Wertz, Santa Clara

Source^[8]

Postseason

West Coast Conference tournament

See main article: 2019 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament.

NCAA tournament

See main article: 2019 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

See also

• 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
• West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament
• 2018–19 West Coast Conference women's basketball season
• West Coast Conference women's basketball tournament
• 2019 West Coast Conference women's basketball tournament

Notes and References

1. News: Pepperdine to replace Marty Wilson at season's end. Raphielle. Johnson. nbcsports.com. February 13, 2018. February 13, 2018.
2. News: Pepperdine officially re-hires Arizona's Lorenzo Romar as head coach. Star. Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily. Arizona Daily Star. 2018-03-12. en.
3. News: Pepperdine expected to hire coach Lorenzo Romar. ajc. 2018-03-12. 2018-03-13. https://web.archive.org/web/20180313031739/https://www.ajc.com/sports/college/pepperdine-expected-hire-coach-lorenzo-romar/E2JQuH7MuIkCGJbupXEvoJ/. dead.
4. News: San Diego's Lamont Smith resigns from basketball post. Jeff. Goodman. ESPN.com. March 9, 2018. March 9, 2018.
5. News: Toreros get another chance to play basketball. San Diego Union-Tribune. Don. Norcross. March 11, 2018. April 2, 2018.
6. News: USD names Sam Scholl new men's basketball coach. San Diego Union-Tribune. Don. Norcross. April 2, 2018. April 2, 2018.
7. Web site: Gonzaga picked to Win 2018-19 Men's Basketball Championship. West Coast Conference. October 18, 2018. October 18, 2018.
8. Web site: WCC Announces 2018-19 Men's Basketball All-Conference Team .